From the WSJ:
Facing competition from rivals offering smartphones with bigger screens, Apple Inc. is planning larger displays on a pair of iPhones due for release this year, people familiar with the situation said.
The people said Apple plans an iPhone model with a screen larger than 4½ inches measured diagonally, and a second version with a display bigger than 5 inches. Until now, Apple’s largest phone has been the 4-inch display on the iPhone 5…
The smaller of the two models is further along in development, and is being prepared for mass production, the people said. The larger-screen version is still in preliminary development, they said.
I’ve been certain a larger-screen iPhone was coming for well over a year now, and not because I know anything or anyone. Rather:
- As the United States and Europe are increasingly saturated, the vast majority of smartphone growth will be in Asia
- In Asia,1 the number one reason to not buy an iPhone (for those who can afford it) is screen size
The latter is a very real thing: TV viewing on your phone is very common,2 the sort of apps that are popular here3 work better on bigger screens, and everyone – including men – carry bags. Anecdotally speaking, I don’t know a single person who doesn’t long for a larger iPhone, but I know plenty who switched to Android for this reason.
Combine these two factors, and this “rumor”4 feels a lot more like “confirmation.”5
I live in Taiwan ↩
And the most popular shows across Asia are Korean dramas, all of which feature the Samsung Note prominently ↩
Think Clash of Clans or Line Camera ↩
Although I’m not sure I buy that there will be two this year; I’d guess the larger version would be in 2015 ↩
The real tell in my book was iOS 7’s support for variable text-sizes and auto-layout ↩